Fish pedicures pop up in Illinois — and clients are biting:
Unlike many fish, the Garra rufa is unafraid of humans. In fact, these pinkie-size fish like you. They like you very much.
Which is key to why they’re turning up in salons in Virginia, Ohio and now, Aurora and Gurnee. People are paying $25-$50 to plop their feet and/or hands in water tanks and let swarms of the gray, toothless fish work as Neptune’s exfoliators.
“They have very firm lips,” said Olena Manakina, co-owner of Fun Fins in the Gurnee Mills Mall. “They literally suck off the tiny patches of dead skin. It tingles like crazy for a minute. But I’ve yet to see somebody jump out of the tank.”
Originally from southern Turkey and northern Syria, Garra rufa for centuries have been known for softening and cleansing the skin of people who bathed in hot springs where the fish darted about, said Shari Horowitz, associate editor of Tropical Fish Hobbyist. The magazine covered the trend in a column headlined “Sushi’s Revenge.”
Can’t wait to try one . . .
>
Source:
Marine pedicures have popped up in Illinois — and clients are biting
Ted Gregory
Chicago Tribune, May 15, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-talk-fish-feetmay15,0,6838902.story
